Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird

3438 Words7 Pages

Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird To Kill a Mockingbird, both as a novel and as a film, shows how time can change the way society views the importance of certain issues, such as racism. Because it was written during the civil rights movement, many people protested against it for conveying issues of prejudice between the north and the south. However, after time, the novel gradually became accepted. It is now a world-renowned classic, and it has won the Pulitzer Prize, as well as having made its way to the big screen. The author, Harper Lee, sets the story in a small town in Alabama. The narrator is a 9-year-old tomboy, whose father was a widowed lawyer. Herbert Mitgang wrote in the New York Times on July 13, 1960: The author eases the reader into the life of the town with warmth and good humor. The reader builds what the children call a Negro ?snowman;? rolls crazily down the street in a somersaulting old tire; sits in a consolidated classroom in a hilarious scene where the backcountry kids unhinge a teacher from an alien ?north? county of Alabama. The children?s phrases, the slang of Southern poor white and Negro, and the language of the more educated people have a regional charm. Mitgang tells us that the novel is about the life of two children who live in a small town, where they deal with racism in society. Prejudice surrounds their childhood, and it lurks with them while they are playing, and even while they are in the classroom. Mitgang tells us that on top of all this, racism is conveyed in the children?s language. Writer Jane Kansas created a website dedicated to To Kill a Mockingbird. She covers areas such as the novel, the film, events, reviews, interviews, and a biography of Harper Lee. According to ... ... middle of paper ... ...1963. Schumach, Murray. ?Prize for Novel Elates Film Pair.? New York Times 19 May 1961, 26. Snyder, Steven. Rev. of To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Zertinet Movies. 01 Nov. 2005. < http://movies.zertinet.com/2002/toki/tokillamockingbird.htm>. Stratton, Jerry. Rev. of To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. FireBlade Book Review.8 Sept. 2002. 26 October 2005. < http://www.hoboes.com/html/FireBlade/Books/Mockingbird.shtml>. Neary, Lynn. Talk of the Nation. NPR . Oct. 2002. 01 Nov. 2005. < http://www.npr.org/programs/totn/features/2002/oct/books/>. Tubelle, Larry. Rev. of To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Variety 100 12 Dec. 1962. 4 Nov. 2005 . Weinberg, Scott. Rev. of To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Rotten Tomatoes.17 Sept. 2005. 20 Oct. 2005. < http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/to_kill_a_mockingbird/?sortby=date&critic=columns>.

Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird
1141 Words | 3 Pages
Childhood is a continuous time of learning, and of seeing mistakes and using them to change your perspectives. In the book To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee illustrates how two children learn from people and their actions to respect everyone no matter what they might look like on the outside. To Kill A Mockingbird tells a story about two young kids named Scout and her older brother Jem Finch growing up in their small, racist town of Maycomb, Alabama. As the years go by they learn how their town and a lot of the people in it aren’t as perfect as they may have seemed before. When Jem and Scout’s father Atticus defends a black man in court, the town’s imperfections begin to show. A sour, little man named Bob Ewell even tries to kill Jem and Scout all because of the help Atticus gave to the black man named Tom Robinson. Throughout the novel, Harper Lee illustrates the central theme that it is wrong to judge someone by their appearance on the outside, or belittle someone because they are different.
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Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird
568 Words | 2 Pages
To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel written by a beloved author, Harper Lee. Despite dealing with serious issues of rape and racial inequality, this novel is renowned for its moral in the value of friendship and family. Lee writes about a young girl, Jean Louise Finch, who is also acknowledged as Scout. Scout grows up in the small fictional town of Maycomb County in the 1930s. She lives with her older brother Jem, their housekeeper Calpurnia, and her widowed father who is an attorney that is faithful to racial equality and later on defends Tom Robinson, a black man charged with raping a white woman. Scout has a basic faith in her community that they are good people but then throughout the novel especially during Tom Robinson's case her faith is tried-and-trued by the hatred and prejudice that looms in the hearts of the people in her community and her perception of the world is changed forever.
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Prejudice in How To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
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Shields, Charles J. I am Scout: The Biography of Harper Lee. New York: Henry Holt and
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Racism in American Schools
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Lee, Harper. "Chapter 11." To Kill a Mockingbird. Philadelphia: Harper & Row, 1960. 113. Print.
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to killa mockaosdf
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“To Kill a Mockingbird." by Harper Lee. HarperCollins Publishers. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Feb. 2014.
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The Life and Writings of Harper Lee
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Nelle Harper Lee, the famous author of the worldwide bestseller To Kill a Mockingbird, was born April 28th, 1926, to Amasa Coleman (a lawyer) and Frances Lee. At the time, the family lived in Monroeville, Alabama. Harper’s family was somewhat wealthy, and they lived in upper middle class society most of their lives. Harper’s birth name, Nelle, was her grandmother’s spelled backwards (Ellen). However, in her publications, she took her middle name, Harper, to avoid being known as “Nellie”. But what numerous people have never heard - and many would be shocked to know - is that one windy, rainy night, Harper threw all her unpublished manuscripts of To Kill a Mockingbird out the window! Fortunately, she soon realized what she had done, and called over her editor, Tay Hohoff, to assist her. Hohoff sent her out in the snow and slush to retrieve her pages, which luckily had not fallen far away. But one would wonder: what would have happened if she had done the same on a slightly windier night?
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Nelle Harper Lee
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Harper Lee is credited greatly for her ability to captivate the reader by presenting opinions, views of life and its common roadblocks, through eyes of a child. Scout, an intelli...
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To Kill a Mockingbird
1274 Words | 3 Pages
Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. New York NY: Warner Books, Hachette Book Group USA, 1960.
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To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
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To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee seems like a complete replica of the lives of people living in a small Southern U.S. town. The themes expressed in this novel are as relevant today as when this novel was written, and also the most significant literary devices used by Lee. The novel brings forward many important themes, such as the importance of education, recognition of inner courage, and the misfortunes of prejudice. This novel was written in the 1930s. This was the period of the “Great Depression” when it was very common to see people without jobs, homes and food. In those days, the rivalry between the whites and the blacks deepened even more due to the competition for the few available jobs. A very famous court case at that time was the Scottsboro trials. These trials were based on the accusation against nine black men for raping two white women. These trials began on March 25, 1931. The Scottsboro trials were very similar to Tom Robinson’s trial. The similarities include the time factor and also the fact that in both cases, white women accused black men.
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Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird
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One of the principal aims of To Kill a Mockingbird is to subject the narrator to a series of
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To Kill a Mockingbird: Discrimination
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"Notes on the Characters of To Kill a Mockingbird." Book Rags. N.p., 28 Jan. 2010. Web. 1
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Perspective on Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird
1379 Words | 3 Pages
Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. New York, New York: Grand Central Publishing, 1960. Print.
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Symbolism and Allegory in To Kill a Mockingbird
3737 Words | 8 Pages
"To Kill a Mockingbird." Sparknotes LLC. 2003. Barnes & Noble Learning Network. 2 Nov. 2003 .
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Theme Of Victors And Victims In To Kill A Mockingbird
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To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is a novel that explores many aspects of a community in the 1920’s. Set in the fictional town of Maycomb, shown to be a peaceful town on the outside while harbouring unseen conflicts within. Disagreements within the novel are started when society's moral laws are taken to the limit or broken, resulting in an outcome of a victor and a victim. These titles are given according to a person’s social status and not on basis of competition. The motif of victors and victims present throughout the novel is represented by characters of varying status and is enhanced by characterization, setting, and literary devices.
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Society and Femininity
1549 Words | 4 Pages
Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. 1960. 40th Anniversary Ed. New York: HarperCollins Pub, 1999.
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Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird